Adjustable diaper



Sept. 27, 1955 c. A. MERONEY ADJUSTABLE DIAPER Filed June 19, 1953 INVENTOR COLEMAN A. MERONEY ATTORNEYS United States Patent O DJUSTABLE DA ER,

Coleman A.. Meroney, Memphis, Tenn., assignor' to Ajust-A-Dyper.Company,..lncorporated,i Memphis, Tenn., 2 orpo ti u fi .T euesse ApplicationJune, 19j, 1953, Serial No. 362,789

ZCI'ai'ms (Cl. 128-7284);

This ,inventionprovides a diaper of new and improved construction.

'It has been the principal object. of this invention to pro,- vide adiaper which when folded in the manner intended and required by itsconstructionand' configuration, will havea trapezoidal shape by reasonof which it will fit an infant in. themost comfortabl'emanner and which,by reason of the construction, arrangement and folding of its parts,.will provide a maximum arnount o f absorbent maate rial at the centralarea of the. diaper, where it is most needed. A further principalobjectof the invention has been to provide a diaper having adjustable.fastening means permanently attached thereto, thereby removing thenecessity of using pins, which fastening means are so arranged,andppsitionedgthat the diaper may. b.e .adjusted in both length and-girth,whereby .a diaper of one size may be comfortably and efficiently fitted'to infants of varying sizes. Other objectsandfeaturesmf novelty oftheinvention-will be .made.apparent by. the;.f'ol1owing description, theappended claims. and .thearinexedczdrawings.

An embodiment of the invention is described in the followingspecification and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a preferred embodiment of the invention in itsunfolded condition;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the diaper of Fig. 1 folded to doublethickness, and also showing the lines about which the parts of thediaper are subsequently folded;

Figs. 3 and 4 are plan views showing subsequent folding steps inpreparing the diaper for use, and

Fig. 5 shows the diaper in folded condition with the parts attached andarranged as they will be in actual use.

A diaper formed in the preferred manner according to my invention ispreferably made from a rectangular sheet of textile material 2 which ispreferably approximately twice as long as it is wide whereby it may befolded about its center line 4 to form a substantially square piece oftextile material of double thickness. Such a rectangular sheet isdisclosed in Fig. 1 and may be made of any material which is suitablefor diaper use, such as gauze, muslin or cotton, woven in any desiredmanner.

One of the halves of this rectangular sheet, which half is indicated bynumeral 6, has two sets of fastening means attached to one of its faces.One set of these fastening means comprises two groups 8, each comprisinga plurality of snap fastener parts, which groups are aligned with eachother and are spaced apart at the extremities of a diagonal line 12which joins the center points of two adjacent sides 14, 16 of the part 6of the rectangular sheet of material and which provides one of the foldlines about which the square double-thickness piece is folded to form adiaper. The two groups of fastener parts 8, 10 are disposed inwardly ofthe fold line 12, by which it is meant that they are between the foldline and the center of the square 6. Each group of fastener partscomprises a plurality, preferably four, of snap fastener parts spacedapart in a line parallel to the fold line 12 and positioned adjacent thesides 14, 16 respectively at the ends of the fold line 12. Thesefasteners maybe separately attached tothe material of the part 6 or thefastener parts of each group may be attachedtoa. strip of textilematerial whichis itself attached to the part 6. Thesecond set offastening means. comprises two single snap fastener parts 20,22 whichare attached to the part 6 and are spaced apartalong a diagonal foldline 24 which is parallel to foldiline 12 and extends between thefoldiline. 4 and thefourth side 26 ofthe part 6, being relatively closeto the corner formed by the.

intersection ofthe fol'd. line 4 and side 26., These two snap fastenerelements 20, 22 are positioned inwardly from the fold line 4 and theside 26 closely adjacent and outside of fold line 24; by which it ismeant that they are between that fold line and the corner of part 6-which is formed by the intersection of fold line 4 and side 26; of thesquare 6. Two additional fold lines 30,. 32 are pro vided andrespectively extend from the outer, ends of fold line 12 to the 'side26and fold 1ine'4, passing outside of, but closely adjacentto, thesingle snap fastener parts 20, 22. The fold lines 12, 24, 30 and 32 forma trapezoid" at the center of the. square 6 with its major axis, i. e.its height, extending diagonally of the square. The fastener parts 8,10iare within the trapezoid-at the opposite ends of the: fold line 12"which forms the base of the trapezoid, while thefastener parts 24), 22.are outside the trapezoid at the opposite ends of the fold line 24which forms the upperorsrnaller sideof the trapezoid.

Inforrning a diaper in accordance with my invention from materialconstructed and. foldable in the described manner the reetangul ar.sheet 2 is firstfoldedtabotnt its center line 4 to the rear of the. sideto which the fastener parts 8, 10,20,221are attached, whereby thefastener parts are nottcovered, thus providing-a square 6 of donblethick et with t a ten r Par pds a h n. The triangular side wings a and'b, which lie outside the fold lines 30, 32 are now folded about theselines to the side of the square 6 opposite to that to which the fastenerparts are attached. These side wings are shown in their folded positionsin Fig. 3 and it will be seen that they overlap at the center of thesquare, as shown at 40, thus providing additional thicknesses ofmaterial at the area where it will be most needed. The triangular piecesc, d which lie outside the fold lines 12, 24, respectively, are nowfolded on top of the folded triangular parts a, b, as shown in Fig. 4,thus providing additional thicknesses of absorbent material in thecentral area of the diaper. It will be seen that because of thepositioning of the snap fastener groups with respect to the fold lines12, 24, the folding of the parts in the described manner will cause thesnap fastener groups 8, 10 to be on the outside of the folded diaper, bywhich is meant the side opposite to that to which the parts a, b, c, dare folded, while the fastener elements 20, 22 will be on the inside ofthe folded diaper, by which is meant the side to which the parts, a, b,c, d are folded. This relation of the parts is illustrated in Fig. 4 inwhich the snap fastener groups 8, 10 are shown in dotted lines and thefastener parts 20, 22 are shown in full lines.

A diaper constructed and folded in the described manner may be placed onan infant with the narrower end in front and the wide end to the rear.In this position the groups 8, 10 of snap fasteners will be on theoutside of the wider back part of the diaper and on each side of theinfant, while the single snap fasteners 20, 22 will be on the interiorof the diaper at each side of the narrower, front part thereof, wherethey may be selectively coupled to any of the fasteners of the groups 8,10 to accommodate the diaper to the girth of the infant to which it isapplied. If a longer or shorter diaper is required, the adjustment maybe made by shifting the fold line 24 toward or away from the fold line12. The over-lapping of the outlying wing parts a, b, c, a at the centerarea of the diaper proat te ent-- 7? %55.

vides a maximum amount of absorbent material at this area.

While I have described and illustrated one embodiment which my inventionmay take, it Will be apparent to those skilled in the art that otherembodiments, as well as modifications of that disclosed, may be made andpractised without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention,for the limits of which reference must be had to the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A sheet of absorbent material of rectangular shape adapted to beformed into a diaper of trapezoidal shape having multiple layers, saidsheet being provided with a center fold line whereby it may be foldedinto a square form by two superposed pieces, two sets of fastener partsattached to one of the faces of one of said square pieces and beingrespectively adjacent the opposite ends of a diagonal fold line whichjoins the approximate centers of two adjacent sides of said square andthe fastener parts of each set being aligned in parallelism with andinside said diagonal fold line, two single fastener parts which areattached to the same side of said square piece as the first fastenerparts and which are outside of and spaced apart along a second diagonalfold line which is substantially parallel to the first diagonal foldline and which extends between two adjacent sides of said square whichare not the sides connected by the first diagonal fold line, said squarehaving two additional converging fold lines which extend from the outerends of said first diagonal fold line toward and outside of and adjacentsaid single fastener parts, all of said fold lines forming a trapezoidat the center of said square with its major axis extending diagonally ofthe square, and said fold lines being so formed that the material of thesquare outside the trapezoid is folded away from the face of the squarepiece to which the fastener parts are attached, the first sets offastener parts being disposed within the trapezoid and the singlefastener parts being disposed outside the trapezoid whereby the 4 saidfastener parts are disposed on opposite faces of the diaper after thesquare has been folded into trapezoidal shape.

2. A substantially square sheet of absorbent material adapted to befolded to provide a diaper of trapezoidal shape, said sheet having twosets of fastener parts attached to one face thereof and beingrespectively adjacent the opposite ends of a diagonal fold line whichjoins the approximate centers of two adjacent sides of said sheet andthe fastener parts of each set being aligned in parallelism with andinside said diagonal fold line, two single fastener parts which areattached to the same side of said sheet as the first fastener parts andwhich are outside of and spaced apart along a second diagonal fold linewhich is substantially parallel to said first diagonal fold line andwhich extends between two adjacent sides of said sheet which are not thesides connected by the first diagonal fold line, said sheet having twoadditional converging fold lines which extend from the outer ends of thefirst diagonal fold line toward and outside of and adjacent said singlefastener parts, all of said fold lines forming a trapezoid at the centerof the sheet with its major axis extending diagonally of the sheet, andsaid fold lines being so formed that the material of the square outsidethe trapezoid is folded away from the face of the square piece to whichthe fastener parts are attached, the first sets of fastener parts beingdisposed within the trapezoid and the single fastener parts beingdisposed outside the trapezoid whereby the said fastener parts aredisposed on opposite faces of the diaper after the sheet has been foldedinto trapezoidal shape.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,438,039 Croft Mar. 16, 1948 2,523,989 Geeslin Sept. 26, 1950 2,591,182Miller et a1. Apr. 1, 1952

